Re: Live stereo looping (was Re: DON'T TRUST THE SOUND MAN)

["Dennis Leas" <dennis@mdbs.com>]

> That's been my experience.  I've been to outdoor shows where I
> literally could not hear one or more musicians because the
> engineer had them panned too hard.

You know there's that psycho-acoustic effect (I can't remember it's name)
where you can pan sounds from left to right by adjusting the left-right 
time
delay.  It's a small delay, on the order of 800 microseconds.

There's an example on my Kyma system.  It is especially impressive with
headphones.  When you pan the sound totally to the left, for instance, you
would swear to God that your right headphone is dead.  Yet if you listen to
only the right 'phone (by removing the left 'phone from your ear), you hear
the sound very clearly.  That's because the sound is the same amplitude in
the left and right 'phone, just slightly delayed in the right.

If you panned sounds with this scheme, people able to hear only one speaker
would still hear everything as a mono mix.  People in the middle would hear
a proper stereo image.  Of course, the effective delay (and hence stereo
image) would vary depending on the listener's position in the house.  I
suspect this "panning through delay" technique would narrow the "sweet 
area"
of good imaging compared to amplitude panning, but at least everybody could
hear everything.

Has anybody tried this?

Dennis Leas
-------------------
dennis@mdbs.com